The Art Scene: 05.02.13

Local art news

| April 30, 2013 - 11:09am

Jack Youngerman’s works on paper will be on view at the Drawing Room in East Hampton beginning tomorrow.

Paper Retrospective
A selection of Jack Youngerman’s works on paper from 1951 to 2012 will be on view at East Hampton’s Drawing Room gallery beginning tomorrow and running through June 3.
Mr. Youngerman has been exploring invented form, organic abstraction, symmetry, and asymmetry with a bold palette since his early years in Paris after World War II. This exhibition will present rare early collages, colorful gouache and oil paintings, and select India ink compositions. The aim is to trace his progression from early geometric collages to the most recent results of his longstanding interest in radiating symmetrical variations.
Mr. Youngerman established a studio in Bridgehampton in the late 1960s and has been a full-time resident since 1995. He has been the subject of 50 one-person shows and had a full retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1986.

Two at Halsey Mckay
Beginning Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m., Halsey Mckay Gallery in East Hampton will show two solo exhibitions, “Rose Shoulder,” work by Colby Bird, and “Sarah Dornner: Transoms.”
Mr. Bird harnesses light itself in sculptures that incorporate lights to become functional lamps. The hard-edged industrialism of his designs is not of the classic porcelain ginger jar variety. Instead, brick and other industrial materials are his mediums, which he sands, saws, and stains to effect laborious transformations. Mr. Bird’s background as a photographer has instilled in him a particular interest in the properties and consequences of light.
Ms. Dornner is concerned with perception and “its destabilizing effect on spatial engagement,” according to the gallery. Working in sculpture and two dimensions, she deconstructs patterns and forms into linear elements. Her materials are aluminum, steel, lacquer, and wood, and she uses them to explore her compositions in both two and three dimensions. Ms. Dornner earned an M.F.A. in sculpture at Yale University.
The exhibition will be on view through May 26.

Mixed Media at Ashawagh
“Mixed Media Plus” will be on view this weekend at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. The show will feature the work of Ronnie Grill, Gene Samuelson, Nadine, Lance Corey, Alyce Peifer, Frank Sofo, Anna Franklin, Elizabeth Weiss, Anne McAlinden, Laura Benjamin, Catherine Silver, Ann McNamee, and Ursula Thomas. It will open on Saturday afternoon with a reception from 5 to 8 and remain on view through Sunday.

New at Crazy Monkey
Crazy Monkey Gallery’s May show in Amagansett will feature four cooperative members: Jana Hayden, Jim Hayden, Ellyn Tucker, and Bob Tucker, as well as a group exhibit of other members such as Tina Andrews, Barbara Bilotta, Beth Barry, Daniel Dubinsky, Lance Corey, Katherine Hammond, Cathy Hunter, June Kaplan, Andrea McCafferty, Sheila Rotner, Daniel Schoenheimer, and Mark E. Zimmerman. The work will be on view beginning tomorrow, with a reception on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. It will remain on view through May 27.

“Two Men” at Nightingale
Sara Nightingale Gallery in Water Mill will present “Two Men,” an exhibition of photographs and a book signing by John Jonas Gruen, and recent paintings by Gus Yero opening on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.
At the same time, Ms. Nightingale’s #blinddates/musiclab series will have Erez and Jonah Kreitner, a k a Fiddle ’n’ Bones, providing musical entertainment with Dalton Portella on djembe and conga.
“Two Men” is a book of photographs by Mr. Gruen that examines relationships of intimacy between men, some of whom are lovers and some who are not. “From the first, men have been assigned the role of leader, provider, decider, protector, instigator, fighter, and wooer,” he writes in the foreword to the book. “All of us will continuously and forever be subjected to what the world . . . thinks a man should be.” The exhibition includes 30 of these photographs.
Mr. Yero is an abstract painter who experiments with formal composition and uses color to play with shape, scale, and pattern. His latest works are inspired by views he saw in Sedona, Ariz., earlier this year: “The architectural landscape of the red rocks, their layers and flat surfaces, as well as the influences of Navajo weavings and the artisans of the Hopi Indians, have all found their way into these paintings. I see everything as color and shapes. When painting I use color as my vocabulary to create and inspire stories.”

Public Radio Art
Mitchell Park in Greenport will be the site of the first WPPB Art Show on June 8. Artists and galleries have been invited to participate as exhibitors at this event, which will have individual tents for artists and galleries as well as a larger general display tent for smaller presentations.
Spaces will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Juried entry is by Hector deCordova. The registration deadline is Friday, May 10. Further information is available on the station’s Web site.

Hoepker at 4 North Main
Thomas Hoepker, a German photographer who lives in Southampton, is showing his work at 4 North Main Gallery in Southampton through Tuesday.
Mr. Hoepker came of age in Germany and worked for publications there such as Municher Illustrierte and Stern. Magnum Photos, a cooperative photography agency and archive, began to distribute his archive in 1964 and he became a full member in 1989.
In addition to still photography, Mr. Hoepker worked in documentary films for German television in the 1970s. He eventually moved to New York and was president of Magnum from 2003 to 2006. He is both a photojournalist and a features photographer, and his work has won many awards.
The show will feature subjects of his with a regional connection, such as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, John Chamberlain, Chuck Close, and Henry Geldzahler. Other subjects include Muhammad Ali and Claes Oldenburg, whose work is currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art.
Mr. Hoepker will be in the gallery to speak with patrons tomorrow and Saturday from 3 to 8 p.m.